Senate Republicans shot down Democrats‘ attempt to reimpose a ban on bump stocks for semiautomatic rifles Tuesday.
The move came just days after the Supreme Court struck down a Trump-era regulation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms prohibiting the device in the wake of the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival that killed 60 people and injured hundreds more.
Although the outcome on the Senate floor came as no surprise, it marked the latest in a series of election-year votes by Democrats touching on contentious policy issues including immigration, abortion access, and reproductive health.
Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) blocked a request from Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) to unanimously pass his legislation that would restore the bump stock ban.
“Welcome to another day in the Democrats’ summer of show votes,” said Ricketts, who argued that the measure would infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Heinrich told the Washington Examiner he saw “no legitimate use case” for bump stocks.
“There’s not a military application, because real automatic firearms are actually much more accurate,” he said. “There’s no law enforcement applications. There’s no self-defense application. This thing is tailor-made for mass shootings.”
Senate Democrats sought to shine a spotlight on the matter after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority determined last week that the ATF overstepped its authority in banning the gun accessory, which allows semi-automatic weapons to fire more rapidly.
Ordinarily, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would have scheduled a full vote on the Senate floor, but with lawmakers preparing to leave for a two-week recess for July 4 later this week, he opted for the unanimous consent request, which can easily be blocked by a single senator.
Republicans and at least one centrist denounced the approach, with senators lamenting that the bill did not go through committee.
“There’s no process around here,” Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV), who caucuses with Democrats, told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), known for his work across the aisle, criticized the bump stock episode as a “political exercise” with the intent of “poisoning the well.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), a co-sponsor of Heinrich’s bump stock ban, and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) were among the Republicans who said they would support such legislation.
“I think it’d be better to put it through committee and bring it to the floor,” Collins said.
Heinrich said he’d be “happy to work with Republicans who have ideas,” but Schumer deflected whether the topic will be revisited at a later date.
“Many [Republicans] were extremely supportive of this when President Trump did it as a regulation, and I’m just shocked that the Supreme Court — Donald Trump is hardly a friend of gun safety — but I’m just shocked that the Supreme Court would be even to the right of him,” Schumer said.
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Meanwhile, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), the third-ranking Democrat, argued a bipartisan solution with a recorded vote would have taken too long.
“This is a way to immediately have the discussion on it, and maybe there’ll be more later,” she told the Washington Examiner.
